Friday, October 15, 2010

TKAM - PERIOD 2

Hello, and welcome to my blog! We'll use this forum throughout the year as a way to encourage discussion between all students, leaving behind the boundaries and borders of the traditional classroom: hopefully this blog will bring together students from a variety of background experiences, personalities, thought processes, etc.

THE OBJECTIVEFor our first assignment, we're going to create a virtual database. Each student will research a topic related to the time period and/or content of Harper Lee's novel, synthesize the information, and report in the form of a blog response. By the time we are done, we will have created a veritable research library of our own. Anyone interested in studying the important people, places, and events related to TKAM need look no further than our own blog!

THE RESOURCESUsing the credible resources available through the library's website (NOT GOOGLE!!!), each student will consult at least two sources to gather information on the assigned topic. Once gathered, the students will synthesize the information and respond through a blog post.

THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE RESPONSE:Your responses must include the following:

1. A basic identification of the subject that answers the journalistic questions of "who, what, where, when, why, and how."

2. A more complex explanation that includes the significance of this particular person, place, or event.

For example:Why does this topic remain important after all of these years?What is the ongoing effect or relevance of this topic?What trends, patterns, or themes of the time period are reflected in this topic? (Injustice, Innovation, Peaceful Resistance, etc.)How does this topic relate to the novel?

3. Internal citations that identify the two sources from which you gathered your information. For example, you might include a sentence like "According to Facts on File, Medgar Evers fought for...". A works cited page is not required to document these sources, though.

4. A reflection of Advanced Placement work, not simply getting by with the least amount of work possible but striving to give the best and most thorough explanations possible. Responses should be at least 8 sentences long, but they certainly may be longer in order to provide ample information on the topic. According to our usual practices, responses must be written in complete sentences with correct use of spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Note: Students may want to compose their responses in a word processing document, then cut and paste the completed writing into the response window.

5. Students should respond to their individual class period's post. Also, each student should sign his or her post with first name, last initial and class period; for example: Susan K, Period 1.

THE DUE DATEPosts must be added by the time your come to school on Wednesday, October 20. This assignment counts as a quiz grade.

57 comments:

According to EBSCO’s Student Research Center, “Medgar Evers” Medgar Evers was an American black civil-rights activist, whose murder received national attention and made him a martyr to the cause of the civil rights movement. He served in the U.S Army during World War II, After graduating from Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College Medgar started organizing local affiliates of the NAACP. After building a base of support Medgar moved to Jackson to become the NAACP’s first ever field secretary in Mississippi. Tensions were high in Mississippi and on June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers was assassinated in front of his home. EBSCO’s Points of View states that Evers’ death was a rally cry in riots all over the country. Medgar Evers is important because his death jump started segregation riots all over the country.. Evers relates to the book because To Kill a Mocking Bird because in the book there are issues of segregation and unfairness towards African Americans. The assassination of Evers happened around the time of Martin Luther King Jr. and was and important event on the road to equality for African Americans. Marcus,Deayala

According to the Student Research Center on EBSCO, Harper Lee was born April 28th, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. According to ABCCLIO’s American History page, Harper Lee’s parents were Amasa Coleman and Francis Finch Lee. She was the youngest of four children, she attended public school in Monroeville, and a year at Huntington College in Montgomery. She then attended University of Alabama and while she was there, she focused on literature, journalism, and history. She was the editor of the school’s newspaper, the “Rammer Jammer.” She received a bachelor’s degree and after college, she spent her nights writing, and her days as a reservation clerk for Eastern Air Lines. She decided after time, that she wanted to write professionally. She quit her job, and devoted all her time for writing. She wrote three short sketches and in 1957, gave them to an agent. He refused to publish it unless she lengthened the story, gave more logic to its plot, and gave it tighter construction. After years of editing, she re-submitted it to an agent, and in 1960 Harper Lee’s book, “To Kill a Mockingbird” was finally published.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” reflects the racial and political theme of the period. The plot of the book is an extended argument between outraged racists and an attorney, Atticus Finch, who defends a black man accused of raping a white girl. Some characters in the book were reflected from someone in her childhood. The character Atticus Finch is evolved from her father. Harper Lee dedicated “To Kill a Mockingbird” to her father and sister, Alice.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” remained a bestseller for 73 weeks, and received a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. It also won honors from the Alabama Library Association, Literary Guild, Book-of-the-Month Club, British Book Society, Reader's Digest Condensed Books, and the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. She was named to the National Council of Arts by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and was invited by President John F. Kennedy five years earlier for dinner at the white house. “To Kill a Mockingbird” was translated into 30 languages, and in 15 years, 11 million copies were sold.Avery C,Period 2

Rabies Rabies is a deadly animal disease caused by a virus. According to medicenter.com rabies, can occur in wild or domestic animals. People get it from the bite of an infected animal. In people symptoms are fever, headache, confusion, fatigue, hallucinations, and paralysis. Once the symptoms begin the disease is usually fatal. A series of shots can be given to prevent rabies in people and animals. According to Ontario.com, rabies was first discovered around 2300 B.C. Rabies is still an important topic today because there are still cases of this deadly disease. The number of deaths due to the rabies virus is very low in the United States due to our easy access to vaccines, but rabies, although not in the U.S., is infecting and killing millions of people worldwide every year.Colin L.Period 2

According to ABC Clio's American History Burning of Rosewood article, the Rosewood Massacre took place in 1923 when a mob of racist whites set fire to the African American town of Rosewood, Florida after killing eight residents. Rosewood, Florida neighbored the heavily racist town of Sumner, Florida where a white woman falsely accused a black man of assault. This gave an excuse for the already envious white vigilantes of the area to go after this man. The vigilantes’ dogs lost scent of the man in the town of Rosewood in which they went around killing eight residents(however according to EBSCO Student Research Center’s A Black Man Accused, a Town Destroyed, many more were killed). These killings lead to the fleeing of Rosewood residents into nearby swamplands which in days lead to the deletion of the town off maps.

During the 1920’s segregation was a big issue and to make things even worse, in Florida in the 1920’s they were going through the Florida Land Boom in which the price and value of land increased, therefore making it unaffordable for people to pay for. The Land Boom lead to even more severe racism and nativism. The accusation of being assaulted by a black was like putting salt on a wound at the time. The white society was awaiting an excuse to let out their frustration and envy. The burning of homes of innocent African Americans and wiping a prosperous neighboring African American town was their way of doing so. The 1920’s was also the start of major segregation. When blacks had gone to war in WWI they were expecting more equality than before, yet the worst was yet to come after their arrival. Although the North gave a little more rights; it was the beginning of the worst for the blacks in the South. It was in this decade which tensions increased and the infamous KKK resurged and assaulted and tore apart families in the later years. The 1920’s not only gave birth to terrible segregation in the 30’s, but also the Great Depression. The great depression is known as the longest, most widespread and deepest depression in the 20th century.

According to Harper Collins from the EBSCOhost database, “The Dewey Decimal System” is a system in which libraries use to categorize books. This system divides books into ten main groups that classify the general fields of knowledge. The creator of this intelligent organization tool was Melvil Dewey, who came up with it in 1876. “The Dewey Decimal System” is still used today in many libraries because of how simple, and accessible it is. This system makes it very easy to locate books by their fields.

Coming from Joan S. Mitchell of EBSCOhost, “The Dewey Decimal System” is enhanced by the continuous improvement on the system itself. Knowing that, we know that libraries all over the world still use “The Dewey Decimal System” today, even though it might be more dated the other organization methods.

According to “ebscos” student database, segregation in the 1930’s was a time when blacks were seperated from whites. The whites had an advantage over blacks. They got to use the better bathrooms, sit in the front of buses, go to better schools, and much more. The south was consitered more racist than the north because of the civil war. In the 1800’s The south was fighting to keep slaves.

On “ABC-CLIO” , it said that a big part of segregation in the 1930’s was the KKK. The KKK was a white group who were against blacks. They lynched over 2000 blacks in the south. They hated blacks because they didn’t consider them equal to whites because of there skin color. It was a big part in the thirties, but it wasn’t until the 1050’s when segregation ended.

Stated in the article “Groups and Organizations”, labor unions were fist formed during the 18th century by artisians, skilled handy workers, who wanted to create an organization that laborers could use to work together for a common goal. This goal was to create power and influence over their quality of work and treatment by thoes who hired them. As more and more laborers continued to produce these types of organizations, the urbanization of them began to expand. The more expantion grew, the more owners started to worry about an overthrow of laborers, so they decided to form their own particular groups as an approach to keep labor costs down. Constant battles broke out between these two social groups over the next 300 years. The oppinion in this article is that the seperation of these two powers were very destructive toward the United States’ political and buisness industries.

According to the National Labor Union, labor unions should “act on the belief that laborers and owners share identical interests”. As seen throughout the last three centuries, labor unions have spread wildly and more workers have produced organizations that are following the same patterns. They have come to be very useful during the time when labor workers were treated as nothing. Now, because of governmental standards and regulations, laborers are much more protected and represented than they have been in the past. However unions still exist and are beneficital for some professions regarding wages, working conditions, safety, contract negociations and many other job related issues. That is how labor unions have affected our nation in positive and negative ways throughout the starting foundation of our country.

According “Sharecropping” by Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition from EBSCOhost, sharecropping is an agricultural system where the worker is to work for the landlord and in return, receive shelter, food, and other living necessities. The system of sharecropping first emerged in America after the Civil War in the Southern plantation systems. The types of workers that were part of this system were the previous African slaves and eventually poor white families. Though the conditions were not as physically severe, sharecropping was essentially created to become the solution for an alternate form of slavery. The landlords used sharecropping by giving the workers half of the realized payment and subtracted that from the worker’s debt to the landlord. The landlords gave high interests charges, forcing the worker to keep working for the landlord due to the continually compiling debt.

Though slavery had politically ended by the Union victory in the Civil War, sharecropping continued slavery’s trend of injustice. It displayed the lasting effects of slavery on the growing past society. According to “The Efficiency of Sharecropping: Evidence from the Postbellum South” from EBSCOhost, the sharecropping was more desirable because of the high productivity in sharecropped farms compared to just owner-operated farms. The unjust idea of forcing a fellow human being to work for another’s, or in this case the landlord’s, benefits and greed was the same in both slavery and sharecropping. In comparison, between the two systems, slavery and sharecropping were basically both equally unjust.

The article “Fifteenth Amendment (ratified 1870)”, in ABC CLIO, states that the Fifteenth Amendment gave African American males the right to vote. It was formed to protect the voting rights of former slaves and prevent states from denying the right to vote to individuals because of their race, as said by the article “Voting Rights” within the database of ABC CLIO. This amendment was adopted February 26, 1869, but was not ratified until March 30, 1870. The ability of allowing all African American males to vote was degraded by multiple tests and tasks that limited their ability to be able to vote, such as literacy and understanding tests, poll taxes, all white primaries, and intimidation by the Klu Klux Klan.

The significance of the Fifteenth Amendment was, and still is, the ultimate idea of equality. It was a step in a long process of trying to make African Americans of equal position as whites. Through the ability to vote, citizens are able to play a role in their country by having a say in how their country is run. Since the Fourteenth Amendment gave African Americans citizenship and the Thirteenth Amendment freed slaves, the Fifteenth Amendment naturally followed, giving African Americans the right to vote which is a right of a citizen, as said in the Encyclopedia Britannica. The Fifteenth Amendment was an important step to help African Americans achieve equality, a struggle that would continue to last for many years to come. Through the Fifteenth Amendment, giving African Americans the right to vote, the principle that “all men are created equal” was further achieved.Emily N, Period 2

According to ABC CLIO’s glossary terms, lynching is the putting to death (usually by hanging) of an individual by a mob under the pretense of administrating justice. Lynching occurred in the United States in the 1800’s and 1900’s, but it was especially common in the South. As long as the ritual was in practice, African-Americans were the main victims.

The lynchings in the South reflected the injustice towards African-Americans. It was a way for the whites to show they had power, and they would execute innocent blacks just to prove they were in control. It was also a way to let everyone know how some of the whites felt towards colored people. They hated them so much, that they didn’t mind murdering them for no reason.

An ongoing effect of lynching is that it helped get support for Civil Rights, which completely changed our country. When the lynching of civil rights workers in Mississippi took place, it got a lot of media attention. When people saw that whites and blacks were being hung, it horrified them. The act of lynching though, in and of itself, helped strike up the Civil Rights Movement.

According to “Hooverville” found in ABC CLIO’s American history, Hooverville is a term used to refer to small shantytowns that were occupied by those who were affected most by the stock market crash. They were called this because many individuals who lived in these Hoovervilles blamed the current president, Herbert Hoover, for their troubles and suffering. These Hoovervilles were found all over the country during the 1930’s. People who lost their jobs would come to find shelter, eat out of garbage cans, or cook on scrap metal. According to “Herbert Hoover” found in ANC CLIO’s American History, people who lived in Hoovervilles also used newspapers to keep themselves warm. These newspapers were sometimes called Hoover blankets in reference to Herbert Hoover. Hoovervilles are significant because they were a part of the American history. Hoovervilles demonstrate the true effects of the Great Depression on real American citizens. This was also one of the first times on America’s history when people openly hated the president and blamed him for their problems. Hoovervilles are significant in To Kill A Mockingbird because the setting if the novel is around the same time that Hoovervilles were common. Shantytowns like Hoovervilles could become more and more common in our current society due to the economic recession and distrust in the government.

According to EBSCO’s Student Research Center, a hookworm is a bloodsucking parasite that can live in any human or mammal. They attach themselves to the intestines of the person or mammal with hooks. (Not real hooks, but hooks produced by the hookworm itself) A hookworm is an infection that is caused by an American or European species. This mostly happens in a humid subtropical climate where most people don’t wear shoes or socks in soil fertilized in human excrement. A larva hookworm could easily infiltrate the body through the exposed feet. It gets into your bloodstream and flows in your blood to your lungs. Signs of these larva I your lungs would be coughing up blood. Eventually it floats up with your mucus and is eventually swallowed and goes into the stomach. After the larva have grown enough the female begins producing more than 30,000 eggs a day, which then leads to the eggs being digested and becomes part of the feces, only to contaminate more soil. However, according to EBSCO’s Consumer Health Center, hookworks can prevent asthma when a person is infected, although it feeds on your blood. Blocking asthma isn’t worth having a parasite eating your insides slowly.

According to Britannica Biographies, and an article from Julie Bernier, at EBSCO host, and George Wallace Setting the Woods on Fire, a PBS program of The American Experience, George Corley Wallace was the four time governor of Alabama who led the South's fight against federally ordered racial integration in the 1960s and gained national notoriety as a fierce segregationist.

George Wallace was born on August 25, 1919 in Clio, Alabama, the son of a farmer. During his childhood he enjoyed boxing and won the state’s Golden Gloves boxing championship.

He studied law and graduated from the University of Alabama in 1942. He was a member of the state legislature and was elected judge to the Third Judicial Circuit in Alabama in 1953.

He lost his first race to the State governorship in 1958. At the time white vote controlled politics in Alabama and Wallace lost the race for governor because he was perceived as a moderate in race issues. He understood that white people were against black people and from then on was against blacks to win the white vote.

Since that defeat Wallace, determined to become governor, became a fierce segregationist. In his famous speech he stated: “I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever. He became governor of Alabama in 1962.

While governor, in 1963, he was called to enforce an order of the federal court to admit two black students to the University of Alabama. He kept his pledge to “stand in the schoolhouse door” to block the enrollment of the black students. He became a national symbol against racial integration.

He was an unsuccessful candidate to the U.S. presidency as a candidate of an independent party.

He was reelected as governor of Alabama four times in 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976.

In the 1980’s he renounced to his segregationist ideas, and won a new term as governor with important support from black voters.

He is mainly known as a populist who to win the white vote sided strongly with the ideas of segregation in the southern state of Alabama, home for one of the greatest black populations in the country.

George Wallace is still relevant today in many ways. His name and biography is important to understand racial issues and politics.

He also is an example of populism and how politicians use certain issues to obtain the popular vote even if they may not even share those thoughts.

His winning of the governorship four times, at least three of those by identifying with radical segregationist ideas, is indicative of the very sad state of mind of white citizens in Alabama at the time. As opposed to condemning someone who was advocating for the separation of people based on race, the popular vote sided with a governor that represented white interests opposed to integration. Still today many people judge others by the color of their skin, and George Wallace reminds us how people may gain power and fame supporting unfair causes.

Those that defend state rights over federal power may percieve Wallace as a champion not only of boxing but also of state rights.Maria Cuervo Period 2

According to the “Merriam-Webster Dictionary”, a mockingbird is a “common grayish North American bird related to the thrashers that is remarkable for its exact imitations of the notes of other birds” and the term was first used in 1676.

A mockingbird, according to “Songbirds remind us of simple truths” found in EBSCO host, are plain gray but what they lack in color, they make up for in songs. In Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” it says, “Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us," Miss Maudie explained. "That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

Mockingbirds are peaceful birds that give music for people to take pleasure in. However, not all people always appreciate a mockingbird’s beautiful sounds.

In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the character who symbolizes a mockingbird would be Boo Radley. Boo Radley has been locked up in his house for 15 years by his cruel father and he is always mistaken to be a bizarre and wild man. However, the truth is, he does nothing but gives toys to the children as an attempt to make friends but as his brother does not want that, he deprives Boo of his connection to the outside.

Seeing as Boo Radley is like a mockingbird, it would be a sin to kill him.

According to EBSCO’s Student Research Center, “Vanderbilt, Cornelius,” Cornelius Vanderbilt was an “American shipping and railroad magnate who acquired a personal fortune of more than $100,000,000.” He was born on May 27, 1794 in Port Richmond, Staten Island, New York. Cornelius was the most devoted out of his siblings to the family business and investments says Britannica Online “Vanderbilt Family.” When Cornelius was eleven years old he quit school to work on the waterfront. He loved this job so much that in 1810, with some borrowed money from his parents, he bought his first boat. He used this boat to take passengers from Staten Island to New York City. He built up this industry during the War of 1812 and it became very successful. In 1818 he sold his boats and went to work under Thomas Gibbons as a steamship captain. After working for Gibbons, Vanderbilt decided to start his own steamship company. He gained control of major waterways in the northeast, but he eventually left this industry as well when his competitors agreed to pay him a great amount of money. He worked then in making railroads and offered transportation from Long Island to Boston. Again, his competitors decided to pay him a large amount of money to quit; he was a millionaire by 1846.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout is upset because her teacher, Miss Caroline, does not believe Scout will be successful if her father, Atticus, teaches her at home. However, both Atticus and his brother were homeschooled, and they had flourishing professions. Cornelius Vanderbilt quit school at age eleven, and yet he too had a prosperous life and business. GraceP, period 2

According to the Student Research Center in the EBSCO site, the Jim Crow Laws have to do with slavery. In the Student Center according to the Jim Crow Laws in the books and encyclopedias section, Alec Gallup says The Jim Crow Laws kept the races separate and unequal. These laws promoted segregation between white and black settlers. According toABC- CLIO under American Government, Jim Crow Laws was in the south and was the system of de jure racial segregation according to Alec Gallup’s book, Introduction. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica under Jim Crow Law, Jim Crow was the name of a minstrel routine preformed beginning in 1828 by Thomas Dartmouth. This term came to be a destination for blacks and their segregated life.

The Jim Crow Laws remain important after all of these years because according to the Encyclopedia Britannica under the Jim Crow Law, because the Jim Crow Laws promoted destiny for blacks. Looking back, blacks lives have changed because of the outcomes of other events. The Jim Crow Laws are important because it states what blacks destinies were going to look like, which turned out different.

This topic relates To Kill a Mockingbird because during this time period in the book, there is still a lot of racism happening. Scout, Jem and mostly all of the neighbors believe that Boo Radley is a bad person, even though he may turn out to be very kind. Also, during the book there are a lot of comparing and insulting blacks when talking in every day sentences. For example, in To Kill A Mockingbird, Miss Maudie says, “That is three-fourths colored folks and one-fourth Stephanie Crawford.” (Lee, P.60) In this sentence, racism is being inserted.

According to ABC-CLIO, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had a drastic effect on America. The act has changed the country forever. The day that the act was signed on June 2, 1964 was the day that all hotels, restaurants, swimming pools and many more public accommodations were open to all people. No matter what race, what religion, what color, or what national origin; you would be able to go to these public places.

This Civil Rights Act also gave the right to vote to all U.S. citizens! The reason that the act was created was segregation and limited voting rights. The biggest right was the banning of sex discrimination. Howard Smith of Virginia created the right against sex discrimination, this right made all men and women equal; they could have equal rights to the jobs, voting rights, and many other things that before then never would have happened.

Many people joined in creating rights and these civil rights are still in action today. If Lyndon B. Johnson would not have signed this act in the oval office our lives would be completely different. If these rights weren't in action we wouldn't have many of our athletes, singers, authors, employers, and even our president! We wouldn't have these things because before the civil rights act of 1964 it wouldn't have been allowed for many people to have those jobs.McKenna O, Period 2

According to ABC-CLIO, the Great Depression was a global economic crisis that started with the stock market crash. The Great Depression was the largest economic crisis ever experienced by the United States. On October, 24, 1929 the Stock Market crashed; the crash was a catalyst that fueled the depression. Although it mainly affected the U. S. causing at one point 25% of workers to be jobless, it also affected other countries that were economically connected to the U.S. ABC-CLIO U.S. Government, Great Depression. The cause of this Stock Market Crash was that nervous investors saw prices going down and began to sell their stocks. This caused the Market to go down even more rapidly and crash. Although the Stock Market crash is seen as the reason for The Great Depression that is not entirely true. The Stock Market Crash was a large contributing factor which led to the severity of the crash. ABC-CLIO U.S. History, Black Thursday. Another effect of The Great Depression was the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl covered a 150,000 square mile area in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. The Great Depression caused farmers to over produce and the topsoil was turned to dust. The topsoil was also affected by a severe drought in 1934 through 1937. The soil was gathered up by the wind and as the wind grew stronger and the more soil it would carry causing huge storms called dust clouds. ABC-CLIO U.S. History, Dust Bowl. The Great Depression didn’t just yield bad things; it created a great leader who led us out of The Great Depression with the help of World War II. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and was the first president to serve more than two terms. Roosevelt held fireside chats to wary citizens who needed a president who would help them. He used a variety of different ways to try and get us out of the depression including the New Deal and 100 first days. In the end, World War II was the main reason that the U.S. emerged out of the depression. ABC-CLIO U.S. History, Franklin Roosevelt. In analyzing the “To Kill a Mockingbird” book, the Great Depression would have affected the everyday life of Maycomb, Alabama. The society was based on agriculture and the depression was hard on farmers, which probably was the reason Mr. Cunningham paid Atticus with food instead of money. In a small town like Maycomb, even though the depression had an impact, everyone still had a job in the story with the exception of Boo and Bob Ewell. The book showed the importance of neighbors looking out for each other, especially during those challenging times. Ben Meredith Period 2

According to the Encyclopedia britannica’s article “Scottsboro case”, The Scottsboro rape case happened in 1931. The Scottsboro rape case is a falsely accused of nine black teenagers charged with the rape of two white women. after being lynched, they were brought to trial in Scottsboro in April 1931 just three weeks after their arrest. The doctor had examined the two white women and stated that no rape had occur. The white jury had convicted all the nine teenagers, but the youngest, who was 12 years old, were sentenced to death. These sentances brought a load of charges outside the South that a gross miscarriage of justice had occurred in Scottsboro. Scottsboro rape case was an accusation of rape from two white women against the defendants had historic repercussions. The case took place in Scottsboro, Alabama and was heard by the Supreme court in Powell v. Alabama.“Scottsboro Boys” was championed, and in some cases exploited, by radical groups, especially the Communist Party of the U.S.A. In 1932 the Supreme court overturned the convictions on the grounds that the defendants had not received enough legal counsel in a case. The state of Alabama then retried one of the accused and again convicted him. In a 1935 decision in, Norris v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned this conviction, ruling that the state had excluded blacks from the juries. The case, over the years kept coming up over time, and so Alabama tried and convicted Haywood Patterson, sending him to 75 years in prison. Patterson escaped in 1948 and fled to Michigan, where he was convicted of stabbing another black, three years later. Then died in prison. The last member who actually survived, Clarence Norris, was granted full pardon in 1976. This case was important after all those years because many historians believed it sparks the rekindled the modern civil rights movement. This marked the civil rights movement and served as a precedent for cilvil rights activity.Nobody knows how many cases like Scottsboro occurred in Southern states before this one—with its large number of defendants, their young, their brief and almost cursory trials and severe sentences—needed national attention. The trials, and their appeals, gave America lessons in the procedures of Southern courts. The opportunism of American communists, the prejudice in the South, and the hypocrisy among Southern whites. The "Scottsboro boys" was unproved and that the verdicts were the result of racism caused 1930s liberals and radicals to come to the defense of the youths. The fact that Communists used the case for propaganda further complicated the affair even more. To this date, people keep in mind the case and even more. There is also a Musical and a film based on this case. The effect of segregation is presented in this case, which really gives people something to think about that occured in the south.

According to Document-Government and court Documents found in ABC-CLIO, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 created the six-member U.S. Civil Rights commission to investigate allegations that African Americans were not free to exercise their right to vote in many parts of the country. This civil rights act was introduced and signed into law during Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Presidency on September 9, 1957. This act was passed because of the widespread harassment of blacks, especially in the South, by people who were not state officials and who could not be prosecuted under the existing federal rights statues at the time. The 1957 Civil Rights Bill aimed to ensure all African Americans could exercise the right to vote. According to The Civil Rights Movement in the High School section found in Britannica Online, The Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights legislation to be passed since 1875, authorized the government to take legal measures to prevent a citizen from being denied voting rights. This act of 1957 set the stage for the more far-reaching legislation that would follow in the 1960s. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 made it a federal crime to act against voting rights under the color of state action. This movement remains important throughout history to present day because even though racism has died out for the most part, it is still an issue many people face today.

According to the Encyclopedia britannica’s article “Scottsboro case”, The Scottsboro rape case happened in 1931. The Scottsboro rape case is a falsely accused of nine black teenagers charged with the rape of two white women. after being lynched, they were brought to trial in Scottsboro in April 1931 just three weeks after their arrest. The doctor had examined the two white women and stated that no rape had occur. The white jury had convicted all the nine teenagers, but the youngest, who was 12 years old, were sentenced to death. These sentances brought a load of charges outside the South that a gross miscarriage of justice had occurred in Scottsboro. Scottsboro rape case was an accusation of rape from two white women against the defendants had historic repercussions. The case took place in Scottsboro, Alabama and was heard by the Supreme court in Powell v. Alabama.“Scottsboro Boys” was championed, and in some cases exploited, by radical groups, especially the Communist Party of the U.S.A. In 1932 the Supreme court overturned the convictions on the grounds that the defendants had not received enough legal counsel in a case. The state of Alabama then retried one of the accused and again convicted him. In a 1935 decision in, Norris v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned this conviction, ruling that the state had excluded blacks from the juries. The case, over the years kept coming up over time, and so Alabama tried and convicted Haywood Patterson, sending him to 75 years in prison. Patterson escaped in 1948 and fled to Michigan, where he was convicted of stabbing another black, three years later. Then died in prison. The last member who actually survived, Clarence Norris, was granted full pardon in 1976. This case was important after all those years because many historians believed it sparks the rekindled the modern civil rights movement. This marked the civil rights movement and served as a precedent for cilvil rights activity.Nobody knows how many cases like Scottsboro occurred in Southern states before this one—with its large number of defendants, their young, their brief and almost cursory trials and severe sentences—needed national attention. The trials, and their appeals, gave America lessons in the procedures of Southern courts. The opportunism of American communists, the prejudice in the South, and the hypocrisy among Southern whites. The "Scottsboro boys" was unproved and that the verdicts were the result of racism caused 1930s liberals and radicals to come to the defense of the youths. The fact that Communists used the case for propaganda further complicated the affair even more. To this date, people keep in mind the case and even more. There is also a Musical and a film based on this case. The effect of segregation is presented in this case, which really gives people something to think about that occured in the south.

According to the Encyclopedia britannica’s article “Scottsboro case”, The Scottsboro rape case happened in 1931. The Scottsboro rape case is a falsely accused of nine black teenagers charged with the rape of two white women. after being lynched, they were brought to trial in Scottsboro in April 1931 just three weeks after their arrest. The doctor had examined the two white women and stated that no rape had occur. The white jury had convicted all the nine teenagers, but the youngest, who was 12 years old, were sentenced to death. These sentances brought a load of charges outside the South that a gross miscarriage of justice had occurred in Scottsboro. Scottsboro rape case was an accusation of rape from two white women against the defendants had historic repercussions. The case took place in Scottsboro, Alabama and was heard by the Supreme court in Powell v. Alabama.“Scottsboro Boys” was championed, and in some cases exploited, by radical groups, especially the Communist Party of the U.S.A. In 1932 the Supreme court overturned the convictions on the grounds that the defendants had not received enough legal counsel in a case. The state of Alabama then retried one of the accused and again convicted him. In a 1935 decision in, Norris v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned this conviction, ruling that the state had excluded blacks from the juries. The case, over the years kept coming up over time, and so Alabama tried and convicted Haywood Patterson, sending him to 75 years in prison. Patterson escaped in 1948 and fled to Michigan, where he was convicted of stabbing another black, three years later. Then died in prison. The last member who actually survived, Clarence Norris, was granted full pardon in 1976. This case was important after all those years because many historians believed it sparks the rekindled the modern civil rights movement. This marked the civil rights movement and served as a precedent for cilvil rights activity.Nobody knows how many cases like Scottsboro occurred in Southern states before this one—with its large number of defendants, their young, their brief and almost cursory trials and severe sentences—needed national attention. The trials, and their appeals, gave America lessons in the procedures of Southern courts. The opportunism of American communists, the prejudice in the South, and the hypocrisy among Southern whites. The "Scottsboro boys" was unproved and that the verdicts were the result of racism caused 1930s liberals and radicals to come to the defense of the youths. The fact that Communists used the case for propaganda further complicated the affair even more. To this date, people keep in mind the case and even more. There is also a Musical and a film based on this case. The effect of segregation is presented in this case, which really gives people something to think about that occured in the south.

According to Darryl Rehrer and EBSCO’s student database, the Underwood Typewriter was a innovative typewriter model that revolutionized the typewriting industry. The typewriter was first manufactured by John Thomas Underwood, a former ribbon maker who created the first in 1895.

Before Underwood’s first model, the typewriter was an expensive, hard to use machine with very messy and poor results. The mechanical typewriter was out of the economical reach of most Americans. Even the wealthy who could afford them had trouble using them due to the complexity of the machine, mainly due to the fact that the page in which they were typing was concealed inside the machine itself. In fact, even rich, famous authors such as Mark Twain could not use it. He had to hire professional typists to do it for him. It was not until 1883 that he was the first person to send a novel to a publisher in typed form, after it had been invented over 200 years ago at the time. John Underwood saw the trouble in this system and invented the first typewriter where the page being typed on was visible in the front, making it far easier for the average person to use.

His model, the Underwood no. 5, revolutionized the typewriter manufacturing industry. Most other major companies that used the former non-visible format switched to the visible format by 1908, leaving them to play catch-up to the Underwood no. 5. This made the Underwood no. 5 far ahead of the other companies, and the model even shaped the modern electronic computer keyboard we use today. This shows how old components are used for further innovation in even modern technology.

This has significance in To Kill a Mockingbird because the story takes place in the 1930s, the height of the use of Underwood typewriters. The use of the typewriter represents how life would be different in a professional setting, such as Atticus’s work.

According to the Encyclopedia britannica’s article “Scottsboro case”, The Scottsboro rape case happened in 1931. The Scottsboro rape case is a falsely accused of nine black teenagers charged with the rape of two white women. after being lynched, they were brought to trial in Scottsboro in April 1931 just three weeks after their arrest. The doctor had examined the two white women and stated that no rape had occur. The white jury had convicted all the nine teenagers, but the youngest, who was 12 years old, were sentenced to death. These sentances brought a load of charges outside the South that a gross miscarriage of justice had occurred in Scottsboro. Scottsboro rape case was an accusation of rape from two white women against the defendants had historic repercussions. The case took place in Scottsboro, Alabama and was heard by the Supreme court in Powell v. Alabama.“Scottsboro Boys” was championed, and in some cases exploited, by radical groups, especially the Communist Party of the U.S.A. In 1932 the Supreme court overturned the convictions on the grounds that the defendants had not received enough legal counsel in a case. The state of Alabama then retried one of the accused and again convicted him. In a 1935 decision in, Norris v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned this conviction, ruling that the state had excluded blacks from the juries. The case, over the years kept coming up over time, and so Alabama tried and convicted Haywood Patterson, sending him to 75 years in prison. Patterson escaped in 1948 and fled to Michigan, where he was convicted of stabbing another black, three years later. Then died in prison. The last member who actually survived, Clarence Norris, was granted full pardon in 1976. This case was important after all those years because many historians believed it sparks the rekindled the modern civil rights movement. This marked the civil rights movement and served as a precedent for cilvil rights activity.Nobody knows how many cases like Scottsboro occurred in Southern states before this one—with its large number of defendants, their young, their brief and almost cursory trials and severe sentences—needed national attention. The trials, and their appeals, gave America lessons in the procedures of Southern courts. The opportunism of American communists, the prejudice in the South, and the hypocrisy among Southern whites. The "Scottsboro boys" was unproved and that the verdicts were the result of racism caused 1930s liberals and radicals to come to the defense of the youths. The fact that Communists used the case for propaganda further complicated the affair even more. To this date, people keep in mind the case and even more. There is also a Musical and a film based on this case. The effect of segregation is presented in this case.

According to the Encyclopedia britannica’s article “Scottsboro case”, The Scottsboro rape case happened in 1931. The Scottsboro rape case is a falsely accused of nine black teenagers charged with the rape of two white women. after being lynched, they were brought to trial in Scottsboro in April 1931 just three weeks after their arrest. The doctor had examined the two white women and stated that no rape had occur. The white jury had convicted all the nine teenagers, but the youngest, who was 12 years old, were sentenced to death. These sentances brought a load of charges outside the South that a gross miscarriage of justice had occurred in Scottsboro. Scottsboro rape case was an accusation of rape from two white women against the defendants had historic repercussions. The case took place in Scottsboro, Alabama and was heard by the Supreme court in Powell v. Alabama.“Scottsboro Boys” was championed, and in some cases exploited, by radical groups, especially the Communist Party of the U.S.A. In 1932 the Supreme court overturned the convictions on the grounds that the defendants had not received enough legal counsel in a case. The state of Alabama then retried one of the accused and again convicted him. In a 1935 decision in, Norris v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned this conviction, ruling that the state had excluded blacks from the juries. The case, over the years kept coming up over time, and so Alabama tried and convicted Haywood Patterson, sending him to 75 years in prison. Patterson escaped in 1948 and fled to Michigan, where he was convicted of stabbing another black, three years later. Then died in prison. The last member who actually survived, Clarence Norris, was granted full pardon in 1976.

This case was important after all those years because many historians believed it sparks the rekindled the modern civil rights movement. This marked the civil rights movement and served as a precedent for cilvil rights activity.Nobody knows how many cases like Scottsboro occurred in Southern states before this one—with its large number of defendants, their young, their brief and almost cursory trials and severe sentences—needed national attention. The trials, and their appeals, gave America lessons in the procedures of Southern courts. The opportunism of American communists, the prejudice in the South, and the hypocrisy among Southern whites. The "Scottsboro boys" was unproved and that the verdicts were the result of racism caused 1930s liberals and radicals to come to the defense of the youths. The fact that Communists used the case for propaganda further complicated the affair even more. To this date, people keep in mind the case and even more. There is also a Musical and a film based on this case. The effect of segregation is presented in this case, which really gives people something to think about that occured in the south.

The dawn of the 1930’s showed a much different light than the carefree days of the 20’s. Along with the Great Depression, many people found themselves in financial troubles. This theme (not necessarily the Great Depression itself, but financial issues) plays throughout To Kill a Mockingbird. Many families in Maycomb are of lower middle class, some examples being the Cunninghams, the Ewells, and even the Finch family. When Scout asks Atticus directly if they too are poor, Atticus answers “we are indeed.” Many other references to 1930s culture are alluded to in the novel. According to the Student section of EBSCO, it’s as a result of this that some of America’s most popular pop figures (such as Superman) were born as a sort of distraction. The character Dill certainly indulges in the new spurt of creative channeling. A popular past time was going to see movies, the term used then being “picture shows.” Dill, with his 5 dollars, sees picture shows quite often. He then re tells the stories to Jem and Scout, who listen avidly. Such stories include the new movie Dracula that Jem especially is interested in, and somewhat cements him and Dill’s friendship. Other famous movies of the decade include Frankenstein and Gone With The Wind. Along with movies, or “picture shows,” a well known book “The Grey Ghost” is another allusion to 1930s culture in To Kill a Mockingbird. Dill tells Jem that he would trade him a copy of this novel, if Jem could complete a dare. This obviously implies the importance of the book to at least Jem, reading being another popular pastime.

During the time of the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, there were not many cures for some of the diseases that spread through America. One of them, Rabies is one of the largest killers in the world. According to “Rabies Bites” from the elementary and middle school section of EBSCO, Rabies kills more than 50,000 people worldwide every year. Rabies is a disease that is spread through bites from domestic or wild animals. The most common animal to get rabies from is the dog. In the U.S. however, the dog is far from being the leading culprit because there are many programs to capture stray dogs and most dogs are given a vaccine at a young age. The main culprit in the U.S. is the raccoon. Another animal that is becoming a big rabies threat in the U.S. are bats. Bat bites are hard to recognize because they usually come from when you are asleep and they do not hurt bad. Still the sometimes fatal consequences are the same.

Although the recent use of vaccines has highly diminished the chances of getting rabies it is still a very serious disease because of the symptons. According to Encyclopedia Britannica when you are first bitten you should wash the area under water. This should get out a lot of the venom but you still need to rush to the hospital. There you will be given a dose of antirabies derived from horses or humans. If you do not receive this within the first 24 hours after the bite you will most likely die. People who are given rabies first experience excitement, abnormal sensations and they constantly itch around the infected area. This is then followed by a period of extreme deppresion, headache, seizures, and abundant production of saliva. Then the person may experience paralysis of the jaw or paralysis of the whole body before going into a coma and usually dying in the next week. You can see why this was and still is a major threat in our lives.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica the Ku Klux Klan was a group founded after the Civil War and ended in the 1870's. A burning cross became the symbol of the new organization. The Klan participated in marches, parades, and nighttime cross burnings all over the country. It was originally organized as a social club, but quickly became a vehicle for Southern white underground resistance to Radical Reconstruction.

The 19th century Klan as mentioned in an article from Encyclopedia Britannica had its roots near Atlanta, Georgia. It had its peak between 1868 and 1870 Ku Klux Klan members dressed in robes and sheets designed to scare superstitious blacks, and prevent identification. Klansmen whipped and killed freedmen and their white supporters in nightmare raids. The Ku Klux Klan was largely responsible for restrain the white rule in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. The Klan was disbanded in 1869, largely as a result of of the group's excessive violence. There were numerous instances of bombings, whippings, and shootings in Southern communities, carried out in secret, but apparently the work of Klansmen.

By about 1882 the Klan Had practically disappeared after the Supreme Court declared the Ku Klux Klan unconstitutional. During the Great Depression of the 1930's the Klan's membership dropped drastically, and the last remnants of the organization temporarily disbanded in 1994. It disappeared because its original objective was to restore white supremacy throughout the South and had been largely achieved during the 1870's.Grace D.Period 2

According to Scholastic News- Edition 5/6 found in Ebsco’s Student Research Center, Linda Brown was a seven year old African American who was denied admission into an all-white school in Topeka, Kansas. The school systems around the nation thought that it was okay for black students and white students to attend “separate but equal” schools. After Linda’s father sued the school system, his case went to the Supreme Court along with other cases like it. The Justices concluded that segregating public schools meat that black students were not being treated equally, therefore they were being deprived of their 14th Amendment rights. The 14th Amendment states that “No state shall… deny to any person… the equal protection of the laws.”

Segregation was a big part of the United States throughout the 1800’s and the 1900’s. There were bathrooms for only whites and bathrooms only blacks. From water fountains to schools, segregation was never fully terminated until the mid 1900’s. The Court established a doctrine in the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson that stated that separation is allowed as long as everything and everyone were treated equal, but soon after, the Court found out that there was no way to keep in everyone with segregation.

According to Kansas on ABC-Clio, the doctrine of “separate but equal” established by the 1896 case of Plessy vs. Ferguson was overturned by the Court. The Court declared that segregation would have no place in U.S. public education and the ruling opened a long and bitter struggle over the racial integration of schools.

The Brown vs. Board of Education applies to, To Kill a Mockingbird, because segregation takes place in the era that To Kill a Mockingbird is in. Black people in To Kill a Mockingbird are called niggers, which is very disrespectful. Atticus represents a black person in Court and is call a nigger lover by the people in their town.

The 1956 University of Alabama Riots were protests against the admission of Negro student Autherine J. Lucy. The protest s were all but peaceful. They consisted of many cross burnings and marches. According to the Tuscaloosa-Northport issue of January 27, 1956, the first cross to burn on campus was lit on January 26, at 9:30 p.m.

February 4’s issue of the Tuscaloosa-Northport states that another cross was burned on University Avenue, which bisects the campus. Firecrackers were reportedly set off. Shortly after midnight, a mob that consisted of 1200-1500 people formed on the campus. The mob was heard yelling “Keep Bama white”, “To hell with Autherine”, and singing Dixie. The parade lasted until 3 a.m. when the last remaining people disappeared at the flagpole.

It is said in February 5th’s issue of the Tuscaloosa Northport that a car containing out of town Negroes was attacked an angry Alabama mob. The mob shook the car violently and managed to break one window before the car drove off. Later a crowd of 500 gathered at the Student Union Building chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Autherine has got to go.” The crowd left at 11:30p.m. to meet at the Flagpole where student Leonard Wilson tells them to skip any classes they have with Autherine, and the crowd dispersed around 11:45. Earlier the evening 3 crosses were burned in front of Denny Chimes. Dean Corson received several letters from out of town threatening to take action if Autherine was not banned from school.

As found in February 6th’s issue of the Tuscaloosa-Northport, Autherine was hid in a patrol car and escorted off campus. The definite location is not known, but it was thought she was taken back to her home in Birmingham. Also, 3 more crosses were burned. One took place in a pasture at Big Sandy (a predominately Negro area), one at Queen City Park, and one on campus. These brought the number of burnings to 12 in the previous week, 8 of them being on campus. Later, two men from Tuscaloosa were stopped while preparing their cross by police. No charges were filed, but they were given a warning.

According to February 7th’s issue of the Tuscaloosa-Northport, the Board of Trustees moved to stop the continuing violence at the university by expelling the Negro responsible for the outbursts. Autherine was expelled at 11 p.m. on February 6th until further notice. The Board claims she was expelled “for the protection of the faculty and students and for no other reason”.

According to Abcclio’s A National Upheaval, 1954-1975, 96 members of Congress fought the implementation of the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown decision. This resulted in the outlawing of school segregation on March 12, 1956.The ongoing relevance of the Alabama Riots is racism. It represents a passionate display of one race attempting to maintain self importance over the other, and to keep the world they grew up in as they knew it. The riots remain important today because it led the way to school segregation. In 1992, Autherine graduated with masters from the University of Alabama

The 1956 University of Alabama Riots were protests against the admission of Negro student Autherine J. Lucy. The protest s were all but peaceful. They consisted of many cross burnings and marches. According to the Tuscaloosa-Northport issue of January 27, 1956, the first cross to burn on campus was lit on January 26, at 9:30 p.m. February 4’s issue of the Tuscaloosa-Northport states that another cross was burned on University Avenue, which bisects the campus. Firecrackers were reportedly set off. Shortly after midnight, a mob that consisted of 1200-1500 people formed on the campus. The mob was heard yelling “Keep Bama white”, “To hell with Autherine”, and singing Dixie. The parade lasted until 3 a.m. when the last remaining people disappeared at the flagpole. It is said in February 5th’s issue of the Tuscaloosa Northport that a car containing out of town Negroes was attacked an angry Alabama mob. The mob shook the car violently and managed to break one window before the car drove off. Later a crowd of 500 gathered at the Student Union Building chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Autherine has got to go.” The crowd left at 11:30p.m. to meet at the Flagpole where student Leonard Wilson tells them to skip any classes they have with Autherine, and the crowd dispersed around 11:45. Earlier the evening 3 crosses were burned in front of Denny Chimes. Dean Corson received several letters from out of town threatening to take action if Autherine was not banned from school. As found in February 6th’s issue of the Tuscaloosa-Northport, Autherine was hid in a patrol car and escorted off campus. The definite location is not known, but it was thought she was taken back to her home in Birmingham. Also, 3 more crosses were burned. One took place in a pasture at Big Sandy (a predominately Negro area), one at Queen City Park, and one on campus. These brought the number of burnings to 12 in the previous week, 8 of them being on campus. Later, two men from Tuscaloosa were stopped while preparing their cross by police. No charges were filed, but they were given a warning. According to February 7th’s issue of the Tuscaloosa-Northport, the Board of Trustees moved to stop the continuing violence at the university by expelling the Negro responsible for the outbursts. Autherine was expelled at 11 p.m. on February 6th until further notice. The Board claims she was expelled “for the protection of the faculty and students and for no other reason”. According to Abcclio’s A National Upheaval, 1954-1975, 96 members of Congress fought the implementation of the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown decision. This resulted in the outlawing of school segregation on March 12, 1956. The ongoing relevance of the Alabama Riots is racism. It represents a passionate display of one race attempting to maintain self importance over the other, and to keep the world they grew up in as they knew it. The riots remain important today because it led the way to school segregation. In 1992, Autherine graduated with masters from the University of Alabama.Riley R. period 2

According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica article “ Works Progress Administration (WPA), the WPA stands for Works Progress Administration, or Work Projects Administration. President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted the WPA in 1935, to give jobs to the 11 million unemployed people in the United States. It lasted for eight years, and in that time gave jobs to 8.5 million people. It cost the government a total of $11 billion, and salaries for workers ranged from $15 to $90. The WPA built various things, like roads, buildings, bridges, parks, and airports. It was disbanded in 1943 when the wartime economy made unemployment virtually non-existent.

In the book , Walter Cunninghams father could get a WPA job, but he feels his land is more important. This shows how people in that era would not make money their top priority.John Pruitt

Rosa Parks‬‬According to American History at ABC CLIO, Rosa Parks has been called the “mother of the U.S. civil rights movement” because on the evening of December 1,1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. She and her husband were part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In Montgomery, Alabama, segregated seating on public transportation was still required, so whites sat in the front rows of the bus and the blacks sat in the back rows of the bus, if there were even any seats left that were not taken up by whites. If a white person wanted a seat that a black person occupied, the black person had to give up their seat to the white person. This was the case when Parks was asked by the bus driver to give up her seat to a white man. Parks did not want to relinquish her seat so she refused nicely.

Unfortunately, the bus driver called the police. Ms. Parks was arrested, charged, fined, and held in a jail cell until three of her friends arrived to post bail to get her out of jail. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a boycott of the bus company, which lasted more than a year. In response, the United States Supreme Court confirmed a lower court’s decision proclaiming that Montgomery’s segregated bus seating was unconstitutional. ‬This topic remains important after all these years because it shows how brave and courageous Rosa Parks was during the time of segregation. Later, in To Kill a Mockingbird there is a trial about a black man raping a white man’s daughter. The jury, which was made up of all whites, was going to take the white man’s word because of all the racism and segregation, and the black man would never have gotten a fair trial in court.

According to the article “Montgomery Bus Boycott” found on the ABC-CLIO data base, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was the first major event in the civil rights movement. The boycott began on December 5, 1955 just four days after Rosa Parks, an African American woman was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. The Montgomery Bus Boycott ended 381 days later on December 21, 1956 when the Montgomery city buses were forced to integrate.

The boycott was started by the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) whose president was Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a number of the other MIA members were surprised by the number of African-American bus patrons that were willing to inconvenience themselves to boycott the Montgomery city buses. A number of white bus riders also joined the boycott. The Montgomery bus system, which relied heavily on the African-American riders soon found itself almost bankrupt. The bus owners soon met some of the MIA’s demands: African-American bus drivers would be on routes heavily ridden by African Americans, and name-calling from white drivers would come to an end.

On November 13, 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the Montgomery, Alabama segregated bus system was illegal, and ruled that integration of the buses must commence. The Supreme Court’s order was given to the Montgomery city officials on December 20, 1956. One day later, on December 21, 1956, Ralph Abernathy, David Smiley, E.D. Nixon, and Martin Luther King, Jr. boarded a city bus and sat where they pleased. Bus systems in Montgomery, Alabama were integrated for the first time.

According to the article “Civil Right Movement: Legal Battles of the Civil Rights Movement” found on the ABC -CLIO data base, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was one of the first of a number of non-violent protests for civil rights. In addition, the boycott elevated Martin Luther King, Jr., who was the MIA spokesperson, to national prominence.

After nearly half a century we still discuss the Montgomery Bus Boycott because it was a crucial part of the civil rights movement. This boycott helped spark others throughout the United States with the same effect as this one. This relates to To Kill A Mockingbird because of racial tensions and prejudices.

The Pulitzer Prize is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University for terrific public service and accomplishment in American journalism, letters, and music. There are many awards given, differing in number for each category, that recognize hardworking, honorable people. Joseph Pulitzer, a well-known journalist, established the Pulitzer Prize in 1917. The awards are made each May by the Pulitzer board, who are judges chosen by Columbia University. According to EBSCO, between 1970 and 1985, more categories were added and edited to the Pulitzer Prize. Aside from recognition and pride, recipients of awards in some categories also receive prize money.

The Pulitzer Prizes are significant because awards are given to people to acknowledge brilliance in a specific category. According to EBSCO, a newspaper photography award was made for the first time in 1942 and an award for a musical composition for the first time in 1943. These awards are significant because they recognize some categories many people are unfamiliar with. This prize remains important after all these years because it is an honor to many people to be awarded this prize.Nousha N, Period 2

The 1956 University of Alabama Riots were protests against the admission of Negro student Autherine J. Lucy. The protests were all but peaceful, consisting of many cross burnings and marches. According to the Tuscaloosa-Northport issue of January 27, 1956, the first cross to burn on campus was lit on January 26, at 9:30 p.m. February 4’s issue states that another cross was burned on University Avenue, which bisects the campus, as firecrackers were set off. Shortly after midnight, a mob consisting of 1200-1500 people that formed on campus was heard yelling “Keep Bama white”, “To hell with Autherine”, and was singing Dixie. The parade lasted until 3 a.m. when the last remaining people disappeared from the flagpole. It is said in February 5th’s issue of the Tuscaloosa Northport that a car containing out of town Negroes was attacked by an angry Alabama mob that shook the car violently and managed to break one window before the car drove off. Later a crowd of 500 gathered at the Student Union Building chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Autherine has got to go.” The crowd left at 11:30p.m. and met at the flagpole where student Leonard Wilson told them to skip any classes they have with Autherine. The crowd dispersed around 11:45. Earlier that evening 3 crosses were burned in front of Denny Chimes and Dean Corson received several letters from out of town threatening to take action if Autherine was not banned from school. As found in February 6th’s issue of the Tuscaloosa-Northport, Autherine was hid in a patrol car and escorted off campus. The definite location is not known, but it was thought she was taken back to her home in Birmingham and 3 more crosses were burned. One took place in a pasture at Big Sandy (a predominately Negro area), one at Queen City Park, and one on campus. These brought the number of burnings to 12 in the previous week, 8 of them being on campus. Later, two men from Tuscaloosa were stopped while preparing their cross by police. No charges were filed and they were given a warning. According to February 7th’s issue of the paper, the Board of Trustees moved to stop the continuing violence at the university by expelling the Negro responsible for the outbursts. Autherine was expelled at 11 p.m. on February 6th until further notice. The Board claims she was expelled “for the protection of the faculty and students and for no other reason”. According to Abcclio’s "A National Upheaval, 1954-1975", 96 members of Congress fought the implementation of the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown decision resulting in the outlawing of school segregation on March 12, 1956. The ongoing relevance of the Alabama Riots is racism. It represents a passionate display of one race attempting to maintain self importance over the other and trying to keep the world they grew up in as they knew it. The riots remain important today because it led the way to school segregation. In 1992, Autherine graduated with masters from the University of Alabama.Riley R. period 2

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945) was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century. He was in office until April 12, 1945 from March 4, 1933, and it was the longest president period ever. According to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (title) which is in biographies on EBSCO’s Student Research Center, his political career began when he was elected to the New York state senate. In July, 1932, Roosevelt was chosen by the Democratic party to run against the Republican incumbent. In November, Roosevelt was overwhelmingly elected President. He came to the White House at the crisis—the Great Depression. Finance was regulated by new laws that loosened credit and insured deposits, the United States went off the gold standard as a series of government agencies. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was set up to reorganize industry and agriculture under controls and to revive the economy by a vast expenditure of public funds. The Works Progress Administration was made to offer work programs for the unemployed, while the legislation for social security was a long-range plan for the worker in hard situation, such as unemployment, sickness, and old age. On April 12, 1945, a month before Germany surrendered to the Allies, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died suddenly from a cerebral hemorrhage. His character and achievements are still debated by his fervent admirers and his fierce detractors. However, no one denies his immense energy and self-confidence, his mastery of politics, and the enormous impact his presidency had on the development and rescue of the country.

There are more information about the Great Depression and the New Deal. According to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the EBSCO’s Student Research Center, the Great Depression is thought to have begun on October 24, 1929 — a day now called Black Thursday — when prices on the stock market plummeted. In these days, people who had invested in the stock market panicked and tried to sell their stocks. Because everyone wanted to sell, no one wanted to buy. Businesses failed, and people's savings were wiped out. In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was a president. He promised to "wage war" against the Depression. In a series of emergency laws known as the New Deal, he used the powers of the federal government to provide relief to the poor, revive business activity, and establish controls over the stock market and banks. Roosevelt's plan helped. The Great Depression didn't end in the United States until 1942, after the country entered World War II. Because some countries needed to use planes, ships, and other war supplies, almost everyone had a job. By 1944, only 1 percent of the population was unemployed.

In the 1930’s women had many roles. According to the census almost eleven million women, or 24.3 percent of all women in the country, were gainfully employed. Three out of every ten of these working women were in domestic or personal service. Of these women that worked three fourths of the jobs were jobs such as school teachers or nurses. About eleven million women in the 1930’s started to work at a very young age. They started at the age of fourteen.The other percent of the women who were working had clerical or sales jobs. Approximately out of every ten women that worked three of them had clerical or sales jobs. Women in the 1930’s entered the workforce twice as fast as men.According to Britannica online encyclopedia women started to “take” jobs away from men. They starting appearing more in movies and more jobs that men would usually have. The bottom line is women had a major role in the 1930’s.Efrain.B 2nd

According to ABC-CLIO, The Great Depression, “The Great Depression was a global economic crisis that started in 1929. The crisis devastated the economies of many nations and led to a period of financial hardship for millions of people.” In the history of the United States no other depression had such a terrible impact on the United States. It lasted about 12 years, and left many citizens unemployed and many businesses bankrupt. The depression resulted from an overextension of credit and spending in the 1920s. The stock market crash dramatically decreased public confidence in the U.S. economy. The crash also caused other nation’s economies to collapse because they were dependent on trade with the United States.

According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, high school section, The Great Depression from the United States article, President Hoover was the president at the beginning of the Great Depression. However, he wasn’t doing too well. Later, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt was officially announced as president. On Inaugural Day March 4, 1933, he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He was restoring confidence in the citizens of the United States, and they were hoping that he was the one who could get them out of the depression.

The Great Depression is related to, "To Kill a Mockingbird" because the story takes place during the time period of the Great Depression. Even though Maycomb County was already a poor area the Great Depression made it worse. Scout says, “There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to but it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County has recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.” The last part of that quote was the same quote that president Roosevelt had said. The Great Depression is significant because it had a terrible effect on the whole world’s economy and it will help the United States prevent this from happening again.Lanie R., Period 2

Women’s Suffrage Movement (Part I)The Women’s Suffrage Movement was a movement that began at the dawn of the nineteenth century alongside many other social reforms, such as the Temperance and Abolition Movement. However, the Women’s Suffrage Movement remained one of the longest and most debated movements of all time. Many issues contributed to the endurance of the movement, but the primary factor was the prevailing social attitude of masculine dominance. Unlike the Temperance and Abolition Movements, most men did not endorse the movement simply because they did not understand why women desired to be a powerful force in American politics. This misunderstanding resulted in a seemingly one-sided cause until President Woodrow Wilson passed the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919, which officially gave women the right to vote and concluded the movement on a positive note. According to ABC-CLIO’s American Government Article “Women in Government,” the general opinion about women at the beginning of the nineteenth-century movement was that women were solely “responsible for the moral and spiritual welfare of their husbands and children.” To add insult to injury, women were additionally inferior to a certain extent and less able-minded than men. This led to a gradual rise in women’s protests for political rights, as women sought more active roles in modern politics. One important thing to note, however, was that the movement appeared to be more significant to some social classes than to others. ABC-CLIO’s American Government Article “Women in Government” states that “...particularly middle-class women, became increasingly active...to combat these ‘evils’”. Additionally, the article explains how women pursued social reform not to humiliate men, but simply because “...as...primary guardians of hearth and home, they were compelled to combat social problems whenever they same them and by whatever means available to them...[and also]...they were different from men.”

Not only middle class women but also women in general wanted to improve their political standing, and this common goal influenced their choice of strategy. The first strategy was to assist in a controversial reform at the time, the Abolition Movement. However, women ultimately did not contribute to the movement as much as they originally anticipated. Even though women were trying to contribute to the same cause as their male peers, they were shunned by the men with whom they had been aligned. In response, about three hundred women assembled at a convention in Seneca Falls, New York. During the month of July in 1848, the participants in the convention wrote and adopted a Declaration of Sentiments, which listed specific grievances that American society had inflicted upon them. The Declaration then requested specific rights so that women could become more actively responsible and more substantial within their traditional roles. The Declaration led to dramatic responses and sparked a major controversy among men and women alike because it was considered too extreme in the women’s bid for more rights. Even though criticism was generated in response to the Declaration, the convention at Seneca Falls marked the official creation of the Women’s Suffrage and Rights Movement.The movement suffered a brief setback, however, with the outbreak of Civil War in 1861. With the war’s end in 1865, women hoped that the return to pre-Civil War standards would permit the recognition of women’s political rights. They were greatly disappointed when the 15th Amendment was proposed. This amendment granted African-Americans to vote, but it only granted males that right. African-American-women and women in general were excluded. According to ABC-CLIO’s American Government Article “Woman Suffrage Movement,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Anthony, the leaders of the movement at the time, “…urged their male allies at the time to withdraw their support [for the 15th Amendment]…[but] the male abolitionists seemed surprised, even indignant…most refused to sign the petition.” In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the movement gained minimal progress, but at last a turning point came about at the turn of the century.

Women's Suffrage Movement (Part III)What was this kickoff point that the movement needed so desperately? The trigger was America’s involvement in War World I or the “Great War”. During the war, women began to take traditionally male jobs in industrial sectors while men served in the armed forces. ABC-CLIO’s American Government Article “Women in Government” remarks that the war resulted in a change due to two factors: “first, women had proven that they were capable of assuming far more responsibility in running businesses and industry in the country than most men had suspected; second, many believed that if women possessed the vote, they would use their political power to ensure that the United States would never again become involved in such a bloody and costly war, reasoning that few women would sanction sending their husbands and sons to battle for any cause.” Women finally gained political influence through the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted them the right which they had pursued for so long: the right to vote. However, it took time for the amendment to take full effect, and women’s powers in politics gradually became more common in the mid-twentieth century. For America, this remains one of the greatest achievements in its democratic history. While the progression of the movement serves as a reminder that Americans do not always embrace change quickly, it does illustrate the American heritage of rectifying the social injustice found in other countries. Within those one hundred years of debate and struggle over women’s suffrage, wars had come and past, presidents had taken office and died, and perhaps most importantly, other similar movements of social reform had become successful. Many barriers had to be overcome in America’s evolution into a truly democratic nation.The issue of women’s rights is also indirectly addressed throughout Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout the novel, the narrator’s brother, Jem Finch, patronizes the narrator for acting “too much like a girl,” even though she is one. Instead of implying positive aspects about the female gender, he implies its negative concepts. For example, he suggests that she is not emotionally or physically strong enough to handle some ordeals. Furthermore, Scout asks her father why women are not permitted to serve on juries in Alabama. His response that the state would prefer to protect women against cases like that of Tom Robinson is rather poorly supported. However, Scout herself and many other women portrayed in the novel are not timid-hearted. Mrs. Dubose, for example, had enough gumption to break away from her morphine addiction while on her deathbed. Thus, due to the setting of the novel in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the female characters are still not being treated as equals even though the 19th Amendment had already gone into effect.

Women's Suffrage Movement (Part III)What was this kickoff point that the movement needed so desperately? The trigger was America’s involvement in War World I or the “Great War”. During the war, women began to take traditionally male jobs in industrial sectors while men served in the armed forces. ABC-CLIO’s American Government Article “Women in Government” remarks that the war resulted in a change due to two factors: “first, women had proven that they were capable of assuming far more responsibility in running businesses and industry in the country than most men had suspected; second, many believed that if women possessed the vote, they would use their political power to ensure that the United States would never again become involved in such a bloody and costly war, reasoning that few women would sanction sending their husbands and sons to battle for any cause.” Women finally gained political influence through the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted them the right which they had pursued for so long: the right to vote. However, it took time for the amendment to take full effect, and women’s powers in politics gradually became more common in the mid-twentieth century. For America, this remains one of the greatest achievements in its democratic history. While the progression of the movement serves as a reminder that Americans do not always embrace change quickly, it does illustrate the American heritage of rectifying the social injustice found in other countries. Within those one hundred years of debate and struggle over women’s suffrage, wars had come and past, presidents had taken office and died, and perhaps most importantly, other similar movements of social reform had become successful. Many barriers had to be overcome in America’s evolution into a truly democratic nation.The issue of women’s rights is also indirectly addressed throughout Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout the novel, the narrator’s brother, Jem Finch, patronizes the narrator for acting “too much like a girl,” even though she is one. Instead of implying positive aspects about the female gender, he implies its negative concepts. For example, he suggests that she is not emotionally or physically strong enough to handle some ordeals. Furthermore, Scout asks her father why women are not permitted to serve on juries in Alabama. His response that the state would prefer to protect women against cases like that of Tom Robinson is rather poorly supported. However, Scout herself and many other women portrayed in the novel are not timid-hearted. Mrs. Dubose, for example, had enough gumption to break away from her morphine addiction while on her deathbed. Thus, due to the setting of the novel in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the female characters are still not being treated as equals even though the 19th Amendment had already gone into effect.

What was this kickoff point that the movement needed so desperately? The trigger was America’s involvement in War World I or the “Great War”. During the war, women began to take traditionally male jobs in industrial sectors while men served in the armed forces. ABC-CLIO’s American Government Article “Women in Government” remarks that the war resulted in a change due to two factors: “first, women had proven that they were capable of assuming far more responsibility in running businesses and industry in the country than most men had suspected; second, many believed that if women possessed the vote, they would use their political power to ensure that the United States would never again become involved in such a bloody and costly war, reasoning that few women would sanction sending their husbands and sons to battle for any cause.” Women finally gained political influence through the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted them the right which they had pursued for so long: the right to vote. However, it took time for the amendment to take full effect, and women’s powers in politics gradually became more common in the mid-twentieth century. For America, this remains one of the greatest achievements in its democratic history. While the progression of the movement serves as a reminder that Americans do not always embrace change quickly, it does illustrate the American heritage of rectifying the social injustice found in other countries. Within those one hundred years of debate and struggle over women’s suffrage, wars had come and past, presidents had taken office and died, and perhaps most importantly, other similar movements of social reform had become successful. Many barriers had to be overcome in America’s evolution into a truly democratic nation.

The issue of women’s rights is also indirectly addressed throughout Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout the novel, the narrator’s brother, Jem Finch, patronizes the narrator for acting “too much like a girl,” even though she is one. Instead of implying positive aspects about the female gender, he implies its negative concepts. For example, he suggests that she is not emotionally or physically strong enough to handle some ordeals. Furthermore, Scout asks her father why women are not permitted to serve on juries in Alabama. His response that the state would prefer to protect women against cases like that of Tom Robinson is rather poorly supported. However, Scout herself and many other women portrayed in the novel are not timid-hearted. Mrs. Dubose, for example, had enough gumption to break away from her morphine addiction while on her deathbed. Thus, due to the setting of the novel in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the female characters are still not being treated as equals even though the 19th Amendment had already gone into effect.

According to the Student Research Center on EBSCO, the Freedom Riders of 1961 were American civil-rights demonstrators who engaged in nonviolent protests against segregation of public interstate buses and terminals in the South. According to ABC-CLIO’s American History page their strategy was straightforward and decidedly nonviolent. Their plan was to buy tickets for a long bus ride that passed several Southern states, and the black and white volunteers were to ignore all Jim Crow laws. During this Freedom Ride, there was a lot of violence and arrests. In Virginia some Freedom Riders were arrested and as buses moved farther South, the violence they met grew. In South Carolina, they were welcomed with even more beating and arrests. A large angry mob awaited the busses in Alabama, where authorities did nothing to stop the violence committed by the KKK. One bus was firebombed and the injured Freedom Riders were refused medical care. The second bus made is to Birmingham, Alabama before it got viciously attacked by the KKK and local police. The remaining Freedom Riders abandoned the buses and flew the rest of the way to New Orleans. Other Freedom Rides were planned after that, and in conclusion on May 29, 1961 the Kennedy administration ordered Interstate Commerce Commission to fully adhere to the 1955 Supreme Court ruling. The Freedom Riders had reached their goal, and were finally successful!

The Freedom Riders of 1961 relate to “To Kill a Mockingbird” because they both deal with racism. In the novel, a black man is assumed of being guilty of raping a white girl, just because she says so. People do not even care what he has to say and automatically believe the girl because of the color of her skin. In addition to that, Atticus is looked down upon and called names because he is defending the black man, even though it is the right thing to do. Melissa C, period 2

According to “the Murder of Emmet Till” by Brian Thornton on the Student Research Center powered by Ebsco Emmitt Till was murdered by 2 white half brothers for whistling at the wife of one of them. The two half brothers were supposedly paid 4,000$ by look magazine to confess how they kidnapped Till at gunpoint beat him shot him and dumped him in the Tallahatchie River. This murder was important to history because many people used this example to claim that slavery and racism was still there deep in the south. This relates to the novel because the setting is in the south and in the book they often use slang, or racial slurs. A theme of this murder is Racism and even after African Americans were no longer slaves, racism was still there and just as strong.

As said on “Justice for Emmet” by Joy Bennett Kinnon found on the Student Research Center powered by Ebsco the two white males names were Roy Bryant, The Husband of the wife Emmett whistled at. And his half brother J. W. Milam

Emmet’s mother fought until her death against the justice system for her boy. One of her decisions was to bury Emmet in a open casket funeral in Chicago. Emmet’s brutalized body was almost unrecognizable from the damage inflicted on the boy before he was lynched. A quote from Rosa Parks saying “When everyone was demanding me to move to the back of the bus, Emmet Till crossed my mind…” the day Emmet was killed was also the day Rosa Parks didn’t move, and also the day Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “ I Have a Dream” speech. Bain,Cameron Period 2

According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, banned books are books that are not authorized in schools for vulgar word usage and or also the actual story it tells. A book that uses racism or any racial context are usually the books that public schools prohibit. As stated by ESCO’s, Student Research Center, To Kill A Mockingbird is one of those books that many schools throughout Texas and even Alabama are not authorized. To Kill A Mockingbird, is a book that portrays racism in the 1930’s and in addition includes disorderly conduct between a black male and a white female. Although beyond this point, this novel changes one’s perspective to a whole different level. It is said to be the second book that makes the most difference in people’s lives. Once a year there is this week called Banned Book Week. Librarians from public schools talk about the books that are not read at the school and reveal their true thoughts of this novels. - Andrea K. period 2

About Me

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills." Oh, that's not me! No, instead of toiling over coffee beans like Dneisen, I spend my days cultivating a different crop, nurturing critical thought and encouraging reflection and epiphany, Pruning back the errant limbs of digression and distraction,weeding away the obvious and superficial,and safeguarding against the presence of doubt and other parasites.